Sermon - 2016-07-17
How many of you have children or ggrandchildren who are constantly staring down at a device? During the time of driving from one place to another, spending time for the holidays or perhaps some other event? A person’s attention is on their phone and not the people who are surrounding them. The person may be talking to someone in the room through the device, perhaps several thousands of miles or even just in the next community. Now relationships are important, to connect with another person and be able to share your thoughts, your dreams, your emotions, and who you are as a person is important to be healthy. However, when you are so busy with something that you are not honoring the people who are around you or the aspects of the world that may harm you, you are just too busy. Especially when all of your truly does not lead to anything that productive.
So perhaps you take a look at your own calendar. What is it filled with? Work, meetings, sporting events, time with friends, time to relax, time for family, time for a hobby. Speaking with so many people at the nursing home who have lived their life, they often remind me that time is something that is the greatest gift that you can share with anyone. For so many of us, as we are growing up, we are reminded of the time that we spent with our parents, the lessons that they shared with us, and the love that they gave to us. Then as soon as we were able, we were on the move. We wanted to get away and be on the move. However, we still wanted that safety and security of mom and dad. Then when you were a teenager, you wanted to be INDEPENDENT!! Now you had a car, and you could go anywhere you wanted to with the money that you had. And before you left home, you asked mom and dad for $20. We could not wait to get out into the real world. However, as soon as we got out there, Bill showed up. The rent bill, the utility bill, the phone bill, and all of that needed money. So you exchanged the work and your time for someone who would pay you for it. Then one day you find that special someone who you want to spend your life with and you both decide that you are going to raise your children in a different way. Then that child enters into your life, and everything goes out the window and survival is all that matters. Yet soon the same pattern what you did with your parents is repeated.
Independence is important to grow and develop. However, when we think that we are going on in a new way and making our own way, history would show us that others have already walked that path and the results that will come with that lifestyle. Throughout the Old Testament, we bear witness to a people who struggle to be in community. To be united in the name of God because they always want it their way. We see generation after generation struggling to follow God and the next generation struggling to follow. It is a pattern that happens even today.
Mary and Martha show us what is needed in faith formation. If all we are doing is staying busy, then we do not have time to enjoy, to understand, to reflect, or even be in God’s presence. By actually taking some time to be with Jesus she is learning and growing in understanding of what God is doing within her life. What is filling her and what everyone else around her is longing for. To be in a relationship with God means that we are in His Presence. Realizing our worth that he has given to us, but also we realize all the blessings that we truly have to enjoy. But above all, share with others.
This account of Mary and Martha causes us to truly stop and raise the question, what am I doing with my life? Along with that, who am I spending my life with?
May you find the answers to those questions to be: Enjoying this life and living to share God’s love. And being surrounded by those who love you and you love. Amen.
So perhaps you take a look at your own calendar. What is it filled with? Work, meetings, sporting events, time with friends, time to relax, time for family, time for a hobby. Speaking with so many people at the nursing home who have lived their life, they often remind me that time is something that is the greatest gift that you can share with anyone. For so many of us, as we are growing up, we are reminded of the time that we spent with our parents, the lessons that they shared with us, and the love that they gave to us. Then as soon as we were able, we were on the move. We wanted to get away and be on the move. However, we still wanted that safety and security of mom and dad. Then when you were a teenager, you wanted to be INDEPENDENT!! Now you had a car, and you could go anywhere you wanted to with the money that you had. And before you left home, you asked mom and dad for $20. We could not wait to get out into the real world. However, as soon as we got out there, Bill showed up. The rent bill, the utility bill, the phone bill, and all of that needed money. So you exchanged the work and your time for someone who would pay you for it. Then one day you find that special someone who you want to spend your life with and you both decide that you are going to raise your children in a different way. Then that child enters into your life, and everything goes out the window and survival is all that matters. Yet soon the same pattern what you did with your parents is repeated.
Independence is important to grow and develop. However, when we think that we are going on in a new way and making our own way, history would show us that others have already walked that path and the results that will come with that lifestyle. Throughout the Old Testament, we bear witness to a people who struggle to be in community. To be united in the name of God because they always want it their way. We see generation after generation struggling to follow God and the next generation struggling to follow. It is a pattern that happens even today.
Mary and Martha show us what is needed in faith formation. If all we are doing is staying busy, then we do not have time to enjoy, to understand, to reflect, or even be in God’s presence. By actually taking some time to be with Jesus she is learning and growing in understanding of what God is doing within her life. What is filling her and what everyone else around her is longing for. To be in a relationship with God means that we are in His Presence. Realizing our worth that he has given to us, but also we realize all the blessings that we truly have to enjoy. But above all, share with others.
This account of Mary and Martha causes us to truly stop and raise the question, what am I doing with my life? Along with that, who am I spending my life with?
May you find the answers to those questions to be: Enjoying this life and living to share God’s love. And being surrounded by those who love you and you love. Amen.
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